According to an Overclockers.com report, NVIDIA forced EVGA to remove voltage control, more specifically, support for its EVBot accessory, on its GeForce GTX 680 Classified graphics card. EVBot, apart from realtime monitoring, gives users the ability to fine-tune voltages, a feature NVIDIA doesn't want users access to. This design change was communicated by EVGA's Jacob Freeman, in response to a forum question a users who found his new GTX 680 Classified card to lack the EVBot header.

"Unfortunately newer 680 Classified cards will not come with the EVBot feature. If any questions or concerns please contact us directly so we can offer a solution," said Freeman. Hinting that NVIDIA is behind the design change, he said "Unfortunately we are not permitted to include this feature any longer," later adding "It was removed in order to 100% comply with NVIDIA guidelines for selling GeForce GTX products, no voltage control is allowed, even via external device." To make matters worse, Freeman said that EVGA has no immediate plans to cut prices of the GTX 680 Classified.

Maybe like dave said, it has come a time were OCing is mainstream cause people wanted it to be and Nvidia is just trying to save the customer and factory time and headaches with people that "Think" they can OC anything when in turn the just burn the card to the ground.

If you need that much voltage to OC a card then learn some entry level electronic engineering and build a Vmod like it was done in the old days.

I personally think that Nvidia did the right thing by locking voltage on reference boards because the VR circuitry is meant to operate more or less at stock and an excessive stress could be fatal.

On the other hand I do not agree with their choice to impose a lock on partners custom boards which are engineered to withstand higher voltages.

To solve this issue AIB should use a bios switch on custom boards which should only be accessible after removing something like a smartly positioned sticker which can't be reapplied without noticing.
You switch that bios? Well you can have your unlocked voltage at the cost of your entire warranty period.
You want to keep your warranty? Buy reference or do not touch that sticker protected switch.

by: brandonwh64Maybe like dave said, it has come a time were OCing is mainstream cause people wanted it to be and Nvidia is just trying to save the customer and factory time and headaches with people that "Think" they can OC anything when in turn the just burn the card to the ground.

If you need that much voltage to OC a card then learn some entry level electronic engineering and build a Vmod like it was done in the old days.

I can also see where OC would be a lot of fun in the older days when the gains were so noticeable. Today with all the ports and the hardware so far ahead of the software I don't see a point in OC anymore. But I can appreciate people will still wanna do it. I think a true overclocker today doesn't use "autotune" software or push button OC. They still do it old school via bios tweaks and hard volt mods.

Hell I remember trying to do the pencil mod when I first started......then I realized I didn't know WTF I was doing and stopped. I think NVIDIA and the like are just protecting themselves from guys like me that don't come to the realization that "I dunno WTF I am doing" BEFORE they blow the hardware and have to RMA it.

There's still 3rd party support for overvolting your Nvidia cards that isn't dictated by Nvidia. However, the 680 Classified is a product that is aimed towards overclocking/overvolting and is not a reference design so I have no idea why Nvidia stepped in.

by: erockerThere's still 3rd party support for overvolting your Nvidia cards that isn't dictated by Nvidia. However, the 680 Classified is a product that is aimed towards overclocking/overvolting and is not a reference design so I have no idea why Nvidia stepped in.

Kepler is a clocking monster I would not be surprised that in betwen Nvidias reasons to lock voltages there is a "performance gain" one to be avoided.

by: radrokKepler is a clocking monster I would not be surprised that in betwen Nvidias reasons to lock voltages there is a "performance gain" one to be avoided.

I can agree, however these cards were advertised to do these things. People who bought these cards with this feature in mind have now been stolen from. Regardless, as I said there's still 3rd party software to do it. So really, it isn't an issue.

Yea I hear ya, If I paid that amount of money to do what I wanted to do with it (within its limits) and they took a feature that was a selling point away, I would be sending the card back for a full refund.